Client Alerts
Client Alerts
1491 items, 20 items per page
- As discussed in Vorys’ September 3, 2013 Client Alert, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) previously issued final rules interpreting Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 503) and the Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA). The final rules, aimed to improve hiring and employment opportunities for disabled and veteran workers, impose numerous new affirmative action obligations on federal contractors or subcontractors covered by Executive Order 11246 (contractors). The final rules take effect on March 24, 2014. However, any contractor with an affirmative action plan (AAP) already in place may maintain that AAP until the end of the AAP year.
- In November of 2013, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued Final Rules on the Protection of Collateral of Counterparties to Uncleared Swaps (the Final Rules).
- As investigators work to recover the data related to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, we are reminded that the deletion of data discovered through forensic analysis is something that has played a significant role in many of our cases.
- On March 12, 2014, the Supreme Court of Ohio accepted an appeal in Dodd v. Croskey (7th Dist. 2013) on one issue pertaining to the 2006 version of the Dormant Mineral Act, Ohio Revised Code § 5301.56. The Court will consider whether a notice of preservation timely filed after an abandonment notice was effective to preserve a mineral interest where no savings events occurred within the 20 years preceding the abandonment notice.
- As most bankers know, Ohio adopted a new Ohio Financial Institutions Tax (FIT), which is based on a consolidated entity formula explained below. Given the new consolidated approach to taxing financial institutions with a presence in Ohio and the bank regulatory issues that accompany any type of inter-company and bank liability sharing or exchange, it is important that financial institutions have in place an appropriate tax sharing agreement.
- On March 13, 2014, President Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to “propose revisions to modernize and streamline the existing overtime regulations” related to the overtime exemptions for executive, administrative and professional employees. The memorandum does not specify exactly what the new rules should include. However, the administration’s intent to narrow these overtime exemptions is apparent from President Obama’s statement that, “Because these regulations are outdated, millions of Americans lack the protections of overtime and … the minimum wage.”
- Trademark counterfeiting, in general, refers to the placement of a trademark on a product that is not the legitimate product offered by the trademark owner. Meanwhile, the Lanham Act – the U.S. federal trademark statute – defines a counterfeit as “a spurious mark that is identical with, or substantially indistinguishable from a registered mark.”
- On March 10, 2014, U.S. EPA published proposed revisions and confidentiality determinations for the petroleum and natural gas source category of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Rule, 40 CFR Part 98, Subpart W. The proposed revisions to Subpart W include amendments of general applicability, revised calculation methods and reporting requirements for specified emission sources within the source category, and confidentiality determinations for the new and substantially revised data elements associated with the proposed amendments to the rule.
- On March 6, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) issued its long-awaited decision in L.L. Bean, Inc. v. Levin, Case No. 2010-2853 (Ohio BTA March 6, 2014), the lead “test case” on Ohio’s controversial commercial activity tax (CAT) nexus standard. Although this is the first case in a long line of CAT nexus challenges, the BTA’s decision offers very little in the way of any meaningful guidance.
- For several years now, news outlets have grappled with how to civilize the comments sections on their online articles. Some have chosen the path of requiring users to sign in through their Facebook accounts, while many still permit readers to comment anonymously on their websites.
- Defamatory content posted online can significantly harm the reputation of a business or individual, especially when it is listed among top search engine results.
- Two appellate cases were recently decided by the Seventh District Court of Appeals enforcing arbitration clauses within oil and gas leases. There are two major questions Ohio courts must answer when they evaluate arbitration clauses and their applicability to disputes involving parties to an oil and gas lease.
- In a recent decision in a Delaware Chapter 11 case, the court took the unusual step of capping the amount of a secured lender’s loan that could be used in the lender’s credit bid in a Section 363 sale.
- At the beginning of each fiscal year, which for the federal government starts October 1, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes available an allocation of new H-1B visa numbers.
- The problem for the individuals upset with TheDirty.com (that want to sue the owner) is that ythe owner is not the speaker of these controversial statements. Rather, other people (members of the so-called “Dirty Army”) submit the content to him directly through his website or via email.
- All too often, dishonest companies damage their competitors’ reputations online by making a series of false statements on review-based websites. Competitors regularly seek refuge on websites such as Ripoff Report, Pissed Consumer and Yelp, which are structured such that users can anonymously post false reviews.
- The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced that 2013 was a record breaking year for health care fraud recovery. In total, $4.3 billion was returned to the federal government, primarily to the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs.
- Since launching the internet defamation group, we have encountered several misconceptions about the removal of information from the internet. If you or your company has been disparaged online, realize you are not helpless and have several options on how to deal with your potential internet crisis.
- Ohio Statehouse Update: Governor Kasich Announces New Initiatives at Ohio State of the State AddressGovernor John R. Kasich announced new policy initiatives relating to education, workforce development and tax reform at his Monday night State of the State address in Medina. His proposals will be presented to the legislature as part of the Mid-Biennial Budget Review (MBR). The timetable for introduction of the MBR remains uncertain.
- Based on the negative impact on its business, a company may initially believe certain statements or information posted about it online are defamatory. Although the content may be very damaging, it might not be defamatory at all.